Days before the January 6, 2021, insurrection, Fox hosts and executives were communicating about being ready to move on from then-President Donald Trump’s insistence the 2020 election was stolen.
On January 3, 2021, host Lou Dobbs texted a producer, that despite it being eight weeks after the election “none of [Trump’s team] has produced anything tangible or verifiable.” Dobbs then expressed concern that Trump wanted his supporters to descend on Washington in protest “without shelter or food.”
Dobbs, who had his shoe on Fox Business canceled a day after Smartmatic hit Fox with a $2.7 billion lawsuit, added that while he believed the election was stolen, “without evidence we can do nothing significant.”
In a January 4, 2021, text, host Tucker Carlson texted an unidentified individual, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” adding, “I truly can’t wait.”
The Fox News host then expressed his hatred for Trump, texting, “I hate him passionately,” and “can’t handle much more of this.”
The recent hoard of text messages was released on Tuesday (March 7) night and were part of unsealed documents from Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network.
A day before the insurrection, Fox Chairman Robert Murdoch emailed Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, relating suggestions that the network’s “primetime three” should state something along the lines of “the election is over and Joe Biden won. We are all disappointed by [what] happened,” the three could add their love for America and desire “to turn the page.'”
Murdoch noted their statements shouldn’t repeat what he typed, explaining, “a refinement would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election [was] stolen.”
